Review:
Flip Flappers this week takes us to a futuristic city full of lights, giant birds, robot battles and a very short man who apparently created the city.Visually it is stunning as usual but from a story point of view all we see is Yayaka moving further away from her core purpose because of her genuine affection for Cocona (no matter how much she tries to pretend otherwise). I can’t help but think that Yayaka is walking a very fine line and will soon find herself either in real trouble with her group or thrown away. Other than this we really just see Cocona and Papika do their usual run around and let their emotions guide their actions. Somehow Cocona has recovered from her fear of changing things. We know this because she says so. And that’s it. There’s no real build up to this fairly major shift from the previous episode where she was nearly paralysed at the thought of change. Apparently hanging out with Papika has just done it. Still wondering what the end game of all of this is going to be but still entertained enough to keep going.
Flip Flappers is available on AnimeLab.
I thought Cocona’s shift was inspired by seeing Pops’s desperation to protect what’s special to him. After altering the painter’s personality, Cocona was afraid that any possibility of change would end in disaster, but now she realizes that you have to take that risk in order to protect what you treasure. However, I thought it was a really spur-of-the-moment proclamation. It’s possible that she may relapse, but I guess we’ll have to see.
However, I did find it strange that Cocona looked at Papika when she said that she’d protect what’s important to her. What does protecting Papika have anything to do with going to Pure Illusion? To maintain their friendship through wacky adventures? To ensure that Papika doesn’t endure the dangers of Pure Illusion alone? (But can/would Papika enter Pure Illusion alone?)
Since when has Papika needed protecting? This show really does need to sort out what it is trying to say because at the moment it is saying a lot but meaning very little.
Perhaps the more we think about Flip Flappers, the more it flip flaps apart.